Major milestone reached on A14 improvement
scheme – the UK's biggest road upgrade
6 NSC
April 19
Steel takes off for
Luton Airport car
park
Working on behalf of Buckingham Group, James Killelea
is fabricating, supplying and erecting 2,450t of steelwork
for Luton Airport’s new five-level multi-storey car park.
Measuring 80m × 114m and containing two external
ramps, the car park forms an integral part of the Airport’s
expansion programme that will increase its annual
capacity by 50% to 18M passengers by 2020.
The works also include an extension to the existing
terminal building and a new two-storey pier.
The £150M project is critical to meet increasing air
travel demand in London, the South East and South
Midlands over the next two decades.
Long span cellular beam designer Fabsec, has launched
its updated FBEAM 2019 software, which it claims will
help steelwork designers achieve greater levels of project
performance and efficiency.
The FBEAM ambient cellular beam free software is
typically used to design primary and secondary floor
beams and rafters for multi-storey projects. Fabsec
cellular beams can be composite and non-composite with
typical spans of between 8m and 24m, and roof spans of
up to 60m.
One of the updates to the FBEAM software is the
addition of a Fire Engineering Module, that allows the
design of beams using the latest intumescent coatings.
The module calculates the optimum structural section
size and the intumescent coating thickness to determine
the most cost-effective combination.
Fabsec FBEAM software can be downloaded in the UK
from the company’s new website: www.fabsec.co.uk
Also, available on the website is Fabsec’s new
promotional video: https://youtu.be/dYCqIBaXNQk
News
Highways England has announced that structural works
for the 750m-long River Great Ouse Viaduct, which
forms a major part of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon
Improvement Scheme, have been completed.
Said to be the UK’s biggest road upgrade, the £1.5bn
scheme will transform journeys on one of the East of
England’s most vital roads, and the completion of the
viaduct is the latest piece of the puzzle to be put in place.
Willie McCormick, Construction Director for the
A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement Scheme
on behalf of Highways England, said: “This viaduct over
the River Great Ouse, south of Huntingdon, is by far the
biggest bridge on our 21-mile project. It’s taken over 18
months to build, and covers 750m to carry drivers over the
river and floodplain – yet when it opens to traffic in 2020,
drivers will cross it in less than 30 seconds.
“Our hardworking team is building 34 new bridges and
structures as part of this epic project to deliver a new and
improved A14.”
Some 64 pillars are needed to carry the viaduct over
the River Ouse floodplain, each around 2m-wide and
embedded up to 30m in the ground. The pillars support
the 17 spans of steel beams and concrete slabs which
form the bridge deck. When the new A14 fully opens by
December 2020, the bridge will help to reduce journey
times on the road by up to 20 minutes.
Most of the viaduct’s main girders are up to 40m-long,
2m-deep and weigh 50t. The section of bridge that crosses
the river has a longer 70m span, requiring more complex
girders, with larger, deeper haunches to carry the greater
load.
Working on behalf of main contractor Costain Skanska
Balfour Beatty JV, Cleveland Bridge erected 6,000t of steel
for the viaduct comprising 76 main girders and 800 cross
members.
Fabsec launches updated cellular beam software
/Fabrication
/Construction#Steel_erection
/Car_parks
/Long-span_beams#Cellular_composite_beams
/Multi-storey_office_buildings
/Service_integration#Composite_beams_with_web_openings
/Composite_construction
/Fire_protecting_structural_steelwork#Intumescent_Coatings
/Steel_section_sizes
/Steel_section_sizes
/www.fabsec.co.uk
/dYCqIBaXNQk
/Bridges
/Ladder_deck_composite_bridges
/Ladder_deck_composite_bridges#Main_girders
/Design_for_steel_bridge_construction#Bridge_erection
/www.fabsec.co.uk
/dYCqIBaXNQk